A scattered eruption of protests throughout China has sent armoured vehicles
rumbling into town centres, prompted a panic-stricken internet blackout by
the Government and left thousands of residents fearfully blogging of “crazy”
violence on the streets.

The summer surge of protest, which flared spectacularly in the southern
industrial hub of Zengcheng over the weekend, has been linked to seething
popular frustrations with modern China — furies that have drawn the
Government into paranoid crackdowns on activism and huge increases in the
domestic security budget.

The catalysts for protest, meanwhile, remain unpredictable. In Zengcheng more
than 1,000 migrant workers went on the